Pujya Ramsukhdasji Maharaj

[Guest guest]

What is the Bondage of Good and Evil Actions?

 

Question: What is bondage of good and evil actions?

 

The Lord says - " With your mind firmly set on the Yoga of

Renunciation i.e. by dedicating all actions to Me, you will be free

from the bondage of actions having good and bad results; and freed

from them, you yourself having completely surrendered shall attain

Me. " (Gita 9:28)

 

Every action, whether good or evil , has a beginning and an end.

Similarly, due to the circumstances that comes one's way as fruits

of actions, one experiences a oneness, a connection (sanyog) and a

separation, a disconnection (viyog). The point here is that, if an

action and its fruit are transitory, how can affinity with them be

lasting? But when the eternal self assumes affinity with actions

(feeling of mine actions), that Self becomes connected with the

fruits of those actions.

 

Though his affinity with actions and their fruits never remains, yet

the doer assumes this affinity in himself. He (Self) is eternal, so

his assumed affinity which he accepts in himself also appears to be

eternal.

 

The doer, feels happy and considers himself happy when good actions

bear fruit in the form of favorable circumstances. As long as there

remains a desire for happiness, till that time he cannot escape from

sorrow, because the beginning and end of all happiness there remains

sorrow. That is, at all times there is a natural separation from

happiness. That separation from happiness which a man does not

desire, happens regardless as a natural way of life. The point is

that he does not leave the desire for happiness, and sorrow does not

leave him.

 

When he (embodied soul) surrenders himself to God, he realizes his

oneness with God (because he is in reality, a part of God), and his

assumed affinity with the body is wiped out. Actually, from

eternity, he already has a oneness with God, but he did not realize

it because he performed actions with a selfish motive. But when he

offers his actions, as well as, himself to God, He attains His love

naturally.

 

In that state, He feels the Lord's grace, in both the favorable and

unfavorable circumstances. As a kind mother shows her affection in

rearing, as well as, scolding a child, so does the Lord, by sending

favorable and unfavorable circumstances to shower His grace on

devotees. A devotee, without paying any heed to favorable and

unfavorable circumstances, meditates only on God.